Hands-On: Help a Brother Out in New Super Mario U

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

LOS ANGELES — Suck at Super Mario? Killer mushrooms got you cornered? If you have an expert at hand, they can help you make it through New Super Mario Bros. U.

To be released at the launch of the Wii U console sometime later this year, New Super Mario Bros. U was originally shown at last year’s E3 Expo under the name New Super Mario Bros. Mii. At that time, the only new functionality of the Wii U that the classic-style Mario action game used was the ability to be played on either the TV screen, the Wii U controller’s built-in tablet screen, or both.

At this year’s E3, Nintendo showed a more polished version of the game with a more compelling feature. While a group of players controls Mario, Luigi, et al. on the television screen, another player can sit with the Wii U GamePad and help them out. The player looking at the GamePad will see the same thing the players do, and can tap on enemies to briefly slow them down or tap empty space to create Assist Blocks.

Assist Blocks are the game-changing feature here. You can tap the screen to create up to five of these colored blocks at once, horizontal platforms that the other characters can jump and stand on. They disappear after a few seconds, shrinking to nothing, so they have to be used quickly. If the assisting player taps the block again, it becomes a Coin Block that emits golden coins when the other players touch it.

The uses of this should be obvious. If the players are trying to cross a difficult set of obstacles, they can use Assist Blocks to navigate around them. If a player is about to plummet into a bottomless pit and the assisting player is fast enough, he can save them.

Does this break the game? Yes, but no. It’s true that two players can now cheat their way through the levels by using Assist Blocks to get around every tricky obstacle. But it’s not so easy. You have to be coordinated with the other player to make sure you’re placing blocks in the right place. Twice, we died because we accidentally put Assist Blocks above each others’ heads, causing us to hit our heads and fall into pits. If you wanted, you could use the feature to make a friend’s game much harder.

Nintendo reps that demonstrated New Super Mario Bros. U to Wired said they were looking forward to seeing super speed-runs from advanced players who perfectly time their jumps and block placements to zip through levels in seconds.

If you’re uninterested in playing with friends, there’s plenty enough new in Mario U regardless. There’s a new power-up for Mario: the flying squirrel suit. This doesn’t let Mario get any lift, but it does allow him to spread his set of furry flaps and float down gracefully, clearing lots of horizontal distance or floating to collect lines of coins. Pressing A or shaking the GamePad gives him a brief vertical boost, but then he freefalls back to earth.

Mario’s dinosaur pal Yoshi returns, but not in the way you’d expect. In one of the demo levels, there’s a red baby Yoshi inside a block who stays in his baby form. You can pick him up, as you would in Super Mario World. But he doesn’t eat enemies to grow. Instead, he stays small and turns into a balloon, letting you float around for a short time if you’re holding on to him.

You can play the game either with a standard Wii remote or the GamePad. And yes, you can still play as your Mii character if a Mario brother isn’t your cup of tea.

Nintendo is currently showing New Super Mario Bros. U at the E3 Expo all this week. Wired will have more hands-on reports of Wii U games in the coming days.

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